ALDI Reveals New 2017 Logo and Rival Chain Pokes Fun At It

ALDI SÜD (South) is one of the leading global discounts supermarket chains, who operates in Germany with thousands of Aldi stores open in Southern Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and many more.

Last week, the company with 620 stores in the UK and 10,000+ worldwide, unveiled a refreshed logo in a press release (written in German).

It revealed that ALDI will soon be appearing with a new modern logo, which is already being implemented in China. However, backlash has already begun with the new logo not meeting everyone’s taste. This includes one of ALDI’s main German competitors Penny, with a friendly dig at their new ‘funny’ 3D logo over Facebook which gained a lot of attention to the post.

The new logo revealed

The new logo, designed by an agency called illion. markensociataet is a refreshed transition from it’s predecessor. ALDI SÜD launched a press release which describes the logo as a reflection of on going changes in the company.

So, what’s different about ALDI’s new logo?

As you can see, the most noticeable changes are the gradients added to the ALDI ‘A’ which has been made to look 3D and updated. ALDI’s strong recognition value remains which keeps the traditional colours and the well-known light blue ‘A’.

Another noticeable change is the modern font has also replaced the old traditional bold font, which makes the typeface more spaced out making use of the extra space in the blue box.

Incase you didn’t spot some, here are all the changes:

– Replaced font

– Gradients instead of block colours

– Removed blue border around the ‘A’

– Reduced thickness on outside orange border

– Bolder ‘A’ with a curved 3D effect

– Brightened/sharper colours

Why have ALDI changed their logo?

ALDI have updated their logo to fit the modern appearance of the Aldi SUD Group which reflects the major developments of the company “in the interest of it’s customers”. This includes the ongoing development of the product range, redesign of its stores and the upcoming pop-up store in Germany. Communications Director describes the new logo design as “ideally suited to the current modernization process of ALDI SÜD”.

It looks as if ALDI want to keep their logo updated and refreshed with the times and developments of their brand, but does the logo succeed in representing it?

ALDI’s rival chain pokes fun at the logo

ALDI’s main German competitor Penny, decided to recreate their own logo with ALDI’s new refreshed image and uploaded it to their Facebook (and tagged them!).

Here’s the Facebook post which gathered a total of 5.9k likes (updated) and translates “Hey ALDI SÜD, don’t worry about it… it even looks funny with our name “

ALDI then fired back this comment which translates to Wow PENNY, your logo has never looked so beautiful. 3D can not stop everyone! 😎 In this sense – First time to ALDI SOUTH ”

Users found the friendly duel amusing, which followed a lot of user reactions and 687 comments which can be read here.

Do people love or hate the logo?

With a $50bn+ turnover, ALDI’s rebrand will be incredibly expensive to implement and a huge investment into the brand development. Although no significant changes have been made, some people think the logo has taken a step back in time. Especially as companies are usually updating their logos to remove gradients and making their logos more simplistic and flat.

This Twitter user was quick to criticize it’s use of gradients which isn’t particularly by graphic designers. Gradients to make a logo look 3D, gives a logo a dated look from when gradients were an overly used trend in design.

When will the logo be in my local store?

The new logo is already being used in China, but it won’t start start rolling out worldwide until June 2017. Although mixed feelings so far, it will be interesting to see how the new logo is implemented into ALDI’s branding.